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Minor League Wrap (8/16-22/10)

Before we get rolling here, I’d like to notify local baseball fans that the Mariners have extended their player development contract with the Tacoma Rainiers until 2014 and with the Everett Aquasox until 2012. The rest is up in the air a bit, so I think I’ll wait a couple of weeks to cover the other affiliations, which are also expiring. There’s a chance we might get out of High Desert for next year.

To the jump!

Wrapping Up the Draft:

Monday’s deadline came and went with only a couple of signings besides Shipers, second-rounder SS Marcus Littlewood, who came in under what was expected at $900k, and 25th-round pick RHP Ernesto Zaragoza. Littlewood has been playing in tournaments all summer and should be ready to go in short order. Zaragoza was one of a number of two-way players whom the M’s went with as a pitcher, and he ran a 52/17 K/BB in 45.2 IP for Kaiser HS in California this season, after having a 32/8 K/BB in 32.1 IP the year before.

While it was a solid draft on picks, the one that got away is obvious enough, that being RHP Ryne Stanek, a third-round pick who ultimately opted for Arkansas instead. Stanek, on ability, was similar to what Taijuan Walker would be with a lot more polish, so his loss hurts the class significantly in a way that I don’t think Shipers really compensates for. Speaking of compensation though, the M’s will receive a supplemental third-round pick next year for Stanek. The others in the top twenty who failed to sign were also prep pitchers. RHP Jon Keller, picked in the 11th round, had up-and-down negotiations with the M’s and nothing quite got on paper. He’ll be at Nebraska next season. Fourteenth round pick LHP Tyler Linehan, a stocky left-hander who will be at Fresno State in the fall.

With Hulett back in town, the Rainiers have had the opportunity to run out an infield with all lefty sticks, which is pretty neat. For his part, Ackley had five doubles this week, which was as many as he had the whole month of July and more than he had that whole awful April. He’s also recorded his first month with more than one home run, which is something, I suppose. The on-base skills are a little off right now, but who’s to complain when he’s hitting the ball as well as he has been? All he needs to do is polish up the defense a bit more and work on hitting left-handed pitching and he’s ready.

Can’t really put Hyphen in there considering it’s more rehab outings, so Beav it is. Taking out that one disaster start in Omaha, he’s allowed five runs in twenty innings, struck out thirteen, and walked just three, which isn’t bad at all. More impressive, Round Rock is the only weak offense he’s faced thus far, and Albuquerque, the team he faced this week, is the second best offense in the PCL. The strikeouts should probably come up before the team really considers trying him out at the major league level, but it’s looking like Beavan could be ready sometime next year.

From The Training Room:
This stint of playing time in Tacoma was rather short for SS Anthony Phillips, as the Rainiers brought in IF Tug Hulett. He’s been a Rainier before, and fairly recently.

Strange Happenings:
We’ve talked a bit about Poythress relative to Chavez, but Halman is also in the discussion for who will lead the system in home runs, as well as all of minor league baseball. He hit his twenty-eighth this week… Up until this Monday, the Rainiers had lost twelve consecutive games on the road. They’ve managed to regain sole possession of the division lead anyway.

Bonilla wasn’t among the guys I thought would hit four home runs in a week this season. There’s good reason for that, as this week more the doubled his total for the season. To wit, four home runs is more than he had in all the ’08 season (in 76 games), all the ’09 season (62), and ties his total for 96 games in Wisconsin in ’07. Weirdly, he hit seven in his Aquasox tenure the year prior, and that can’t be because he was going to right field, since he’s been a pull hitter throughout his career. In any case, Bonilla has been playing center a lot of late, which is interesting because he’s spent more time there than anywhere else this season and he’d never played it before this year.

This is another one of those “lack of better options” picks because of the general lack of strikeouts on the week. I’ll use that as a segue to talk about Bray’s issue, which is that, despite no change in walks, he lost over a strikeout from last season to this one, and considering he was only at 5.5 before, that’s not a good sign. He’s also been giving up more hits, as one might expect. This is all pretty unusual because Bray has parts of five seasons and nearly four-hundred innings logged in double-A and has averaged over six per nine innings, which is the lowest rate of anywhere in his career, acknowledging that most of his triple-A innings have come in relief. Most pitchers suffer a bit of a dropoff as they move up, but Bray seems to be a unique case this season.

From the Training Room:
OF Dwight Britton was promoted from Everett to replace an injured OF Brandon Haveman. For whatever reason, Britton hit a home run in his first game… Later in the week, RHP Steve Hensley finally hit the DL, which brought on LHP Jimmy Gillheeney from High Desert. They’re sure being aggressive with the college pitchers.

Strange Happenings:
Joe Dunigan and Bonilla went back-to-back on Wednesday and half of that makes sense. Otherwise, I think what happened on the field was weird enough this week.

In the team previews for this season, I said that Shaffer had the potential to turn out a batting line similar to what James McOwen did last year for the Mavs. Shaffer: .327/.379/.495. McOwen: .340/.393/.494. Swish. Adjustments of average aside, Shaffer seems to have a slight edge in power, but his stolen base rate is quite a bit worse, as he’s been 4-for-14 in attempts where McOwen was 13-for-23. Shaffer also has spent more time in left and hasn’t thrown out as many guys, though the former may be due to the presence of the athletic Almonte out there, and Mendez when Almonte needs a spell. Shaffer’s overall ceiling is probably similar to McOwen’s pre-shoulder injury: a left-handed fourth or fifth OF who can hit a little.

This past Friday, LaFromboise got his first start since early July, what with Gillheeney having to go up to West Tenn. The results weren’t bad at all, which raises a point about his relief, that is, it wasn’t good. His walk rate was worse (3.0 to 2.7), the strikeouts were worse (6.0 to 8.0), and the home run rate was worse (1.5 to 0.86). I don’t know why exactly they opted to put him there, given that it’s a bit unconventional to put a lefty with his stuff in the ‘pen in the first place. I hope that when he makes it to West Tenn, he’s starting again.

From the Training Room:
Wednesday afternoon brought in C Ji-man Choi from Peoria. That means he vaulted over three levels. Surprisingly, he did okay, hitting in his first two games and then walking in his next two. A day later, 1B Eddy Martinez-Esteve hit the DL, which has meant Choi is DHing and playing first, not catching… After Friday, OF Kuo-hui Lo also landed on the DL, which brought in DH/OF Julio Morban from Peoria as well. The same day, Gillheeney went to West Tenn and the Mavs got RHP Daniel Cooper as a bullpen arm from the Lumberkings, along with Peoria LHP Nate Reed, a college arm who had been striking out a fair number of guys down in Arizona.

Strange Happenings:
Mike Piazza is now pitching for the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes. It’s not that Mike Piazza… Hesketh had three hits, a walk, and ten Ks through eight innings his first outing of the week. His second, he let eight score on seven hits, five walks, and a K in three innings. I am frustrated.

It’s not often that one sees a guy with as many walks as hits. For whatever reason, Cerione waited until August to get going this year. After posting OPS between .704 and .770 for the first three months of the season, he’s batting .404/.563/.787 in August, which helps contribute to a three-hundred point boost from the first half to the second. His splits for the season are a bit odd though. Even though his discipline is understandably worse against southpaws, he hits them quite a bit harder, and he’s far better on the road than he is at home, something park factors couldn’t hope to explain away as Clinton is a neutral park for left-handers and others in the division are bad.

There are some interesting things that have developed in Medina’s Clinton tenure, a promotion I was skeptical of to begin with. Medina logged eight starts in Everett and went little over five in them on average, whereas in Clinton he’s close to six. His strikeout rate has been completely stable at 10.6, but the main difference we’re looking at here is that he managed to shave off almost a walk-and-a-half from his per nine average after being promoted, and also lost nearly two hits. I’m more inclined to think the command improvements are legit, but it does look like he had a bit of bad luck in Everett too, with a difference of over a hundred points in BABIP, so the hits may also have dropped with good reason.

From the Training Room:
On Monday, RHP Nolan Gallagher came off the DL, which meant RHP Taylor Lewis went to Everett despite spending the rest of his season in the MWL… Late in the week, they added RHP Jonathan Arias to replace Cooper and OF Ryan Royster to replace an injured OF Daniel Carroll.

Strange Happenings:
Nick Franklin has at least twenty of doubles, home runs, and stolen bases. Also cool: after this week, he had twenty walks pre-ASB and twenty post-ASB, despite playing in nineteen fewer games… The final game on the road with Quad Cities was rained out, but as the River Bandits are coming to town later, they’ll make up the game at home.

I think this marks the first time I’ve ended up with neither walks nor strikeouts for a player in a full week, not that it was actually full for the ‘Sox. Anston has hit for more power in August, with 21% of his hits going for extras now compared to 16% in July, and he’s also added his first triple and second dinger as part of that. One of the issues he seems to be having is that he walked eleven times last month and probably won’t hit half that now. His walk rate has been steadily decreasing since he joined the team in June. The other is that he stole ten bases in July (with a bad success rate) and only has one for August. Power works too, but it’s harder to expect that to be his calling card.

Here’s a snapshot of Fernandez command from month to month: June, 13/2 K/BB in 15.1 IP; July, 22/10 in 29.1 IP; August, 18/1 in 21.2 IP. What happened in July? Every other month, Fernandez has been a slight groundball pitcher, nothing too far out of deviation, but in July he had four groundouts for every out in the air. The easy guess would be that they were trying to get him to spot the ball down in the zone a bit more and he kept on missing. This also seems to present itself in his left/right split, as he has a 13/6 K/BB against southpaws in 16.2 IP, but over four-and-a-half grounders per fly, whereas against right-handers it’s 40/7 in 49.2 IP, but one-and-three-quarters grounders per fly. Just a little bit of statistical insight into his repertoire/approach.

From the Training Room:
Phillips, Lewis, Britton, Royster, Arias, they’ve all been covered, but lacking corresponding moves all I can say is that some people probably came off the DL and that’s good.

Strange Happenings:
The Aquasox have been playing Tri-Cities since the weekend, which is always interesting. In the first two games of the series, eight batters were hit, six by Tri-Cities pitchers, which eventually led to a benches clearing incident when Sams was plunked. Later, after the warning was issued, pitcher Eric Thomas and manager Jose Moreno were both ejected. The rivalry is intense, no doubt, but two important considerations are that the parent clubs don’t even face each other most seasons and the team only has a few holdovers from one season to next, and still the rivalry persists… For those of you into trips down memory lane, here’s an Aquasox All-Decade Team. Trips down memory lane can be kind of weird at the lower levels. Ismael Castro! Troy Cate!

The league office named Browning the Hitter of the Week on Monday, despite only three games. I don’t see much reason to disagree, or go with the hot hand, really. Browning now has twenty-six games in the APL, twice as many as he had in Peoria, but where he was hitting .267/.377/.378 there, for Pulaski, he’s batting .370/.485/.580, and has hit four home runs since August 18th. Most of his damage thus far has come at home, which is a little unusual, but previously I had been concerned about Morla doing the same and that turned out to mean little in the long-term, as he rebounded and the rest of the lineup didn’t show such a preference.

The Royals don’t have the worst offense in the Appalachian League, but they’re close enough. Facing off against the pitcher who leads the league in wins, well, it’s not terribly surprising that Boyce picked up another one, though the team combining to two-hit Burlington was certainly nice. Boyce also leads the team with forty-eight Ks, one more than Jesse Nava, though Nava has had another 7.2 innings to work with along the way.

From the Training Room:
Nothing that was reported. Richard Vargas is starting again though.

Strange Happenings:
Even with four games in the week, the M’s still hit seven home runs. They have forty-eight for the year, six behind Elizabethton… Nava was still all right this week, giving up a run on six hits and five Ks in six innings, but he walked four along the way too. Despite that slip-up, the M’s have just 127 walks allowed for the season, the second lowest total. It’s a shame they’re pretty high in home runs, and not too impressive in strikeouts.

Comments

10 Responses to “Minor League Wrap (8/16-22/10)”

GoldenGutz on
August 25th, 2010 8:21 am

Surprised you haven’t put Brandol Perez in the “Dispatches from the Land of Rehabbers and Teens:” section.

I was reading on PI that Franklin could come up to Seattle in September, while it’s probably a pipe dream, I also don’t see him going to HD, so he could potentially see time next year in Seattle Also would like to point out that Pineda only has one more start before he reaches his innings limit. Feierebend gets taken off the 40 man to make room for Pineda. No?

And always thanks for this.

Forgot to mention Poythress, he is pretty old for High A. But he is also learning third, is it possible we have a more powerful Michael Young in HD?

lalo on
August 25th, 2010 9:40 am

What can we expect for Triunfel, Poythress, Mangini??

Nick Franklin in the M´s next year??

Do you think Triunfel has lost his place in the M´s? Franklin is better shortstop, Ackey is in second base, and Figgins was signed for the next four years

Surprised you haven’t put Brandol Perez in the “Dispatches from the Land of Rehabbers and Teens:” section.

I got this question last week too, but no one bothered to point it out, so… The last section is ONLY for those guys in Peoria. I didn’t add Acevedo, if you’ll notice, until after he started showing up there. I don’t ever really expect to add summer leaguers to that section because there are far too many variables going into it.

Besides, Perez is facing awful competition and is 95% projection at this point. Getting excited about DSL players is generally not a good idea because the league is so inconsistent. It’s intro fodder for next week.

I was reading on PI that Franklin could come up to Seattle in September, while it’s probably a pipe dream, I also don’t see him going to HD, so he could potentially see time next year in Seattle

I just can’t see the Mariners doing that. Teams have generally erred on the side of caution as prospects go and have, with good reason, waited until the last year to add prospects to the 40-man whenever they can, just to keep those option years intact in case development stalls. The only exception I can think of in recent memory, excluding Ackley’s major league contract, was when the M’s added Shawn Kelley ahead of his time, and he was in the bullpen almost immediately. There’s no reason to add Franklin now, and plenty of other guys that are due.

Also would like to point out that Pineda only has one more start before he reaches his innings limit. [Feierabend] gets taken off the 40 man to make room for Pineda. No?

Feier is one of the guys I’d have in the crosshairs as being potentially expendable. The M’s may opt to give him another year to work back from surgery though. I’d also single out about half the bullpen as being less than desirable, but that might entail Kelley being okay and Lueke and Cortes being able to step in almost immediately.

Forgot to mention Poythress, he is pretty old for High A. But he is also learning third, is it possible we have a more powerful Michael Young in HD?

It’s probably not much more than an experiment. You’ll remember that they had Eddy Martinez-Esteve out there earlier. The alternative is playing Shaver Hansen everyday and at the risk of a lariat to the face, I don’t really want to do that, and Colina and Seager need to man the other infield positions. They just haven’t had anyone since Tenbrink left so they figured, might as well experiment.

What can we expect for Triunfel, Poythress, Mangini??

I’m increasingly of the opinion that Triunfel might end up as Jose Lopes mk II, perhaps with better work ethic. I’m hoping this season was a write-off due to injury, but he still needs to actually show something at some point. It would be great if they could get him some time in the winter leagues. That’s probably easier said than done (I’ll have an AFL post later in the week).

Poythress probably doesn’t have as much power as HD was leading people to believe, and earlier in the year he was hitting them out at easy parks, but I’ll take this opportunity to note that his 30th came at Inland Empire last night and that park is tough. Still, he has no glaring flaws, whereas Raben is incapable of hitting left-handers, so if not for the whole Smoak thing I’d put him on the depth charts as 1B of the future.

Mangini is still appreciably close to horrible defensively at the hot corner. He’s also above a .900 OPS vs. right-handers and below .700 against left-handers. He might get added to the 40-man in the offseason anyway because the bat could have its place if he keeps it up. Perhaps he has a Dave Hansen-like career, though that would also put him as being more valuable to a NL team.

Nick Franklin in the M´s next year??

I don’t know where Jason is getting that info other than he has better contacts than I do. I expect that was a “Now this is going to sound crazy, but…” kind of aside that ended up getting too much attention. As an alternative, why not promote Franklin to the Rainiers and have him play in their playoff series at Safeco? There’s no option trouble there.

Do you think Triunfel has lost his place in the M´s? Franklin is better shortstop, [Ackley] is in second base, and Figgins was signed for the next four years

It’s likely, but I’m pretty sure Triunfel doesn’t need to go on to the 40-man until next offseason, which would mean he’d be out of options around the time Figgins’ contract expired. I’m not 100% on that, it could be this year. Nevertheless, non-performers lose out to performers. It’s the nature of the beast.

Johermyn Chavez is better prospect than Peguero/Halman???

Peguero hasn’t hit [at all] since April, so I’m comfortable saying Chavez is in a better position there, handedness aside. They’re comparable defensively, though Chavez has a better arm.

Halman is a bit different because he’s a quality centerfield. Chavez has had more walks this year and last than Halman though, he’s just a year behind on the development ladder. I’d probably put Chavez in a top ten for the offseason on the idea that he could turn into Jose Guillen or something. There’s too much Charlton Jimerson in Halman still, and I’m concerned by the fact that even with the additional walks and better average, he still isn’t striking out any less.

just a fan on
August 25th, 2010 12:21 pm

With this rampant Franklin-to-M’s speculation, I have to ask, where do you rank him next season in terms of Major League ability with Josh Wilson and Chris Woodward? And do you foresee any reason that putting him on the M’s roster would be worth whatever adverse effect on his development, if any?

The scoop on Yoervis Medina?

Badbadger on
August 26th, 2010 1:29 pm

I love these threads! Is the “future 40” going to be updated sometime, or is that a thing of the past?

With this rampant Franklin-to-M’s speculation, I have to ask, where do you rank him next season in terms of Major League ability with Josh Wilson and Chris Woodward? And do you foresee any reason that putting him on the M’s roster would be worth whatever adverse effect on his development, if any?

Cripes. He’s more of a switch-hitter than either of those two and his defense would probably play about average. I’d have difficulty seeing him hit for similar power, but relative to the no power the other two stooges provide, you might not think that to be an issue. Also he has wheels.

The general concern would be confidence if he struggles early, but confidence is otherwise an asset for him so it may be a non issue. He’s also bad from the right side when hitting and that’s one thing that surely wouldn’t be helped by being promoted to the majors.

I’d prefer not to be talking about it all, but unless they’re trying to switch hit or learn a new position, hitters are less likely to be hurt by promotions than pitchers are.

The scoop on Yoervis Medina?

Above-average velocity, a solid arsenal without a signature strikeout pitch, and a tendency to mix things up.

Is the “future 40? going to be updated sometime, or is that a thing of the past?

It’ll probably go up sometime later in the offseason, let’s say Januaryish. I don’t have a lot of time to work on it at present, it needs to be overhauled, and there were other signings coming in with the draft and the international period anyway.

nathaniel dawson on
August 26th, 2010 3:25 pm

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here with Nick Franklin. He’s an certainly excellent prospect, yes, but he’s only 19 years old and is in low
A ball. He’s still got a ways to go.

Jay, any early reports on how Poythress is looking at third? It’s pretty unusual to see a guy moved from first to third, especially a big guy with a reputation as a power hitter. The Mariners must feel he’s got some ability to play the position. Any info from people that have seen him play there?

Ji-man Choi in High Desert! That’s awesome. Pretty rare to see a young guy jumped up so many levels. It’s probably just a fill-in thing for the short time left in the season. Still, it’s good to see him get out of Peoria.

Jay, any early reports on how Poythress is looking at third? It’s pretty unusual to see a guy moved from first to third, especially a big guy with a reputation as a power hitter. The Mariners must feel he’s got some ability to play the position. Any info from people that have seen him play there?

Like a Saguaro wearing a hat? He played a bit of third in the Cape Cod League in college and while I’m not in the camp that thought he was a future DH, as some rumblings went around draft time, neither do I think that he’ll ever be able to play a competent third. I haven’t heard much directly about it though, no. Hell, I’d prefer Choi there for the time being, but I don’t know that the M’s have had him working out there.

Ji-man Choi in High Desert! That’s awesome. Pretty rare to see a young guy jumped up so many levels. It’s probably just a fill-in thing for the short time left in the season. Still, it’s good to see him get out of Peoria.

Finally! A Choi question! Er… comment. Anyway, yeah, he looks like he could be a pretty special hitter.

Ed on
August 27th, 2010 1:21 pm

What position is Choi likely to end up at?

Whatever happened to Ismael Castro, anyway? When he played for Everett he looked great.

They wanted him at catcher, but he’s been playing first an awful lot and was a third baseman in Korea. Ideally, catcher, just because he might end up as a fringe bat otherwise. I honestly don’t know why he isn’t getting reps at third though.

Whatever happened to Ismael Castro, anyway? When he played for Everett he looked great.